File - In this March 15, 2014, file photo, the Stephen F. Austin team celebrates with the championship trophy after an NCAA college basketball game for the Southland Conference tournament championship, in Katy, Texas. Stephen F. Austin is headed to the NCAA tournament as the first 30-win team in Southland Conference history. (AP Photo/Bob Levey, File)

But one of the most popular men on the court wears cowboy boots, Wranglers, suspenders and a sleeveless flannel shirt and yields an ax. He has a scraggly playoff beard and mullet, too.

Meet Blake Taylor, the official Lumberjacks mascot.

Taylor wears the costume of one of the most unusual mascots because he’s not hidden under a fluffy costume.

Perhaps that’s why pictures of the 21-year-old Texan went viral during Stephen F. Austin’s wild 77-75 overtime win over Virginia Commonwealth on Friday. Taylor was the most popular person until Desmond Hayman made a 4-point play with 3.6 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

And now only UCLA stands in the way of Stephen F. Austin earning a Sweet Sixteen berth. Which means an even bigger platform for Taylor.

Taylor is so unusual many fans wonder if all that stuff is real. The beard, the mullet, the biceps … all real.

“The Lumberjack position at SFA, everyone says you’re the face of the university,” Taylor said in an interview Saturday. “A lot of school mascots have big fuzzy heads over them. At SFA, you’re the guy. They see you at all the football games and basketball games. Your face is seen around a lot.

“You have a lot more responsibility.”

Taylor had not been on a stage like the NCAA Tournament, so when a guy asked him to take a photo in the bathroom of Viejas Arena well, that was awkward.

He hasn’t let his popularity go to his mullet.

Lumberjacks chop wood, and Taylor’s Twitter account shows him doing an underhand chop, but he doesn’t pretend to be an expert. He’s 6-foot-2, 190 pounds and doesn’t boast about his bench press. There have been bigger lumberjacks at Stephen F. Austin but maybe none with his credentials.

Taylor is an official member of the Stephen F. Austin cheerleading squad, for which he gets a partial scholarship. But he gives credit to the cheerleaders for doing all the stunts and such. He’s also on academic scholarship, too.

He has many stereotypical traits of a Texan and lumberjack, but underneath that gruff-looking exterior is boy-next-door charm.

He has the attention of female fans, although he’s too shy to admit as much. He loves his biggest fans — elementary students who go to the charter school on the campus of Stephen F. Austin.

“I read to them and their favorite book is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ ” Taylor said.

They sure like his outfit, too.

He said his grandfather was chairman of the biology department at the university. His mom is an elementary school teacher in Dallas and his father works for the sheriff’s department.

Taylor can get away with his outfit in the South, but when he’s not there he gets stares.

“I just smile and wave,” Taylor said.

Imagine if he wore that getup around Westwood.

In Nacogdoches, he’s a role model who carries the torch for a long tradition.

“A lot of people don’t know the eastern part of the state is covered by pine forest,” said Robert Hill, Stephen F. Austin’s athletic director. “We have a national forest in our county. Having a lumberjack is something the school decided to do a long time ago, and we’re 90 years old this year.

“It’s always been very special. A lot of people think Texas is prairie and John Wayne and cattle. Here, it’s what we call the piney woods, so this is a big job we take very seriously. It’s a real person, and we’ve always been blessed to have young men who take this seriously.”

Taylor really doesn’t like being the center of attention, but that’s exactly what he was during timeouts of the VCU game, flashing Stephen F. Austin’s hand sign of extending two fingers and a thumb. For a guy who doesn’t like being in the spotlight, he sure has a lot of gigs that put him there.

He was the quarterback for the Dallas suburb Rowlett High School team in football-crazed Texas. He was a catcher on the baseball team, too.

Things you would think about the lumberjack that are true: he wears Wranglers and cowboy boots on a daily basis, he’s worked in construction and on a ranch, has a farmer’s tan, drives a Chevy Silverado, hunts and fishes and has an annoyingly bright orange case for his phone in case he drops it in the woods.

Things you wouldn’t think about the lumbjerack that are true: He plays guitar, string bass and piano and sings. He likes John Mayer, although country is his favorite. He gives campus tours. He’s taking business classes, attends a weekly men’s bible study and has a Bible app on his phone.

Hill touted Blake’s academics and commitment to the university. He was voted Mr. Stephen F. Austin this year, and that’s no popularity contest. Hill divulged that.

“Did he tell you he was named Mr. SFA?” Hill asked. “He’s a little shy.”

It’s an honor given based on academics, extracurricular activities, promotion of the university and, well, popularity surely played a little role.

Taylor will look for a job in the financial world when he graduates in December. He’s been the lumberjack for two years, but that’s not his identity. He doesn’t dread his tenure as mascot coming to an end, but a job in business requires suits and a clean-shaven face.

“I’ll have to shave the beard and cut the mullet out, so it’s my last time to look like this,” Taylor said.

We’ll enjoy watching Stephen F. Austin in the NCAA Tournament. And maybe Taylor will make a mascot cameo in a commercial someday, like some school’s mascots have done.

“I wouldn’t be opposed. I think that would be awesome,” Taylor said. “But I think our basketball team deserves it more than I do.”

True. But the lumberjack is just as fun to people watch as Stephen F. Austin’s underdog team.

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